Fig. 146. Restoration of the head of the 'Old Man of Crô-Magnon,' in profile, modelled after the type skull of Crô-Magnon, Dordogne, with the teeth restored and the head given a younger appearance. After the model by J. H. McGregor. One-quarter life size.
We shall trace this great race through the Solutrean and Magdalenian stages of the Upper Palæolithic and consider its disappearance and possible distribution at the close of Magdalenian times. It will then be interesting to consider the evidence of the survival of the descendants of this race in various parts of western Europe and possibly among the primitive inhabitants of the Canary Islands, known as the Guanches.
Fig. 147. Restoration of the head of the 'Old Man of Crô-Magnon,' front view. After the model by J. H. McGregor. One-quarter life size.
Evidence of Other Races
It is a mooted question whether the Crô-Magnons were the only people inhabiting Europe in early Aurignacian time or whether there were also two other races, the Grimaldi and the Aurignacian. As we have seen in the preceding pages, there is no evidence that the negroid Grimaldi race ever became established in Europe; the idea of the presence of a negroid race has taken the fancy of archæologists like Breuil and Rutot, when seeking an African, Egyptian, or Bushman analogy in certain phases of early Aurignacian art; but it rests merely on the slender evidence afforded by the isolated skeletons of a woman and of a boy.
The case of the Aurignacian race is different; this is held by competent anatomists (Klaatsch,[(22)] Keith[(23)]) to be distinct from the Crô-Magnon race and to bear some resemblance to the Brünn (Brüx, Předmost, [?] Galley Hill) race which, we know, became established in central Europe certainly as early as Solutrean times, if not before.
The so-called Aurignacian race (Homo sapiens aurignacensis), described as a subspecies of existing man, is based upon a type found in the shelter of Combe-Capelle near Montferrand, Périgord, in the summer of 1909 by O. Hauser.[(24)] It is commonly known as the 'Combe-Capelle' man from the scene of its discovery, or as the Aurignacian man (Homo aurignacensis); if a subspecies, it certainly belongs to Homo sapiens. The adult male skeleton was discovered lying undisturbed in the lowest stratum of an Aurignacian industry and was carefully disinterred by Klaatsch and Hauser. It was apparently a case of ceremonial burial; a great number of unusually fine flints of early Aurignacian type was found with it, also a necklace of perforated shells (Littorina, Nassa); the limbs were bent.[(25)] Water saturated with lime had dripped upon the burial-place, resulting in the remarkable preservation of the skeleton. This skeleton is compared by Klaatsch with that of Brünn, Moravia, and of Galley Hill, near London, from which he concludes that it represents a distinct type, the Aurignacian race; the stature is 5 feet 3 inches, as compared with 6 feet 1½, inches, the average in the five Crô-Magnon males of Grimaldi; the brain case is well arched and falls within the variation limits of Homo sapiens. The skull is very long and narrow, the cephalic index being 65.7 per cent; in some points it shows a striking similarity to that of Brünn, in others it varies from it in the direction of the recent European form; the face is not narrow nor is it prognathous; the lower jaw is small with a well-developed chin. Klaatsch finds many characteristics resembling those of the Crô-Magnon race, including the Chancelade type which is a late Crô-Magnon. He suggests that the Crô-Magnon type may be considered a further development of the Aurignacian. It seems probable that the Aurignacian man is a member of the true Crô-Magnon race and that additional evidence is required to establish it as distinct. Schliz[(26)] considers that this skull is an intermediate form between that of the Crô-Magnon and the Brünn race, an indication that these two races were undergoing a parallel development.
